Chronicle

For the Love of LinkedIn - Five reasons you need to get your employees on LinkedIn now

Posted: 13 January 2016

LinkedIn continues to reign supreme as the king of the social staples. It's long been the best pal of all professionals looking for a public place to showcase their experience and collect quality contacts. And with this has come a plethora of new and interesting opportunities for presenting and strengthening your Employer Brand.

The mighty Employer Brand is made up of all the good stuff - the values, style, message, experience and meaning of You. Every post, action and behaviour you share with the world goes into the EB pot so it needs to be on-brand and on-the-button. LinkedIn gives you so much opportunity, scope and the tools to tick some major Employer Brand boxes and so much more.

If you need any more reasons to get your employees joining LinkedIn, here are five fantastic ones.

1. Candidates trust employees.

And trust is everything. A candidate’s first port of call is always research, and LinkedIn is perfect for checking out culture and sussing out the people that make the place. This platform gives employees a chance to stand out as unique professionals, while still representing your Employer Brand. Candidates tend to make contact with current employees to get a feel for what an employer is like to work for, so give your potential candidates that chance. Get your team clued and signed up to LinkedIn. Give them the tools, resources and language to present your brand well and personally. Encourage your employees to spot top talent and engage with them, your mini-brand ambassadors could really help you sculpt, select and screen your future workforce.

2. Referrals are recruitment gold.

We all know that referrals are dynamite sources of top talent. Not only are referrals typically great hires, but they tend to stay with a company longer. Having your workforce on LinkedIn enables you to have a great database of talent at your disposal. The bigger the network you can utilise, the more possible referrals you can expect. Make sure your team know the ins and outs of your referral system perfectly and that they approach and engage with referrals in a consistent and friendly way. LinkedIn is oozing with potential referrals so don’t miss out.

3. A consistent EB is a winning EB.

LinkedIn gives you an opportunity to create a centralised, consistent Employer Brand hub. There are not many places where a potential candidate can move speedily and simply through your culture, team and business goals so make sure your EB is in full bloom. Consistency is at the heart of the EB and LinkedIn gives you the chance to create a uniform and effective way of spreading the EB word. Not only does it look good to have all your employees on LinkedIn and active, but it links the professional with the personality. Give your team the training and support they need to talk freely about you as an employer and the company, while still giving them the freedom to be themselves.

4. Content is king (and ambassadorship is queen).

Content makes an EB. There’s nothing more authentic and engaging than employee content and LinkedIn gives them the platform and tools to get as much brand content out there as possible. Don’t lose sight of what your content goals are. You should always opt for quality over quantity, so put your focus on encouraging your team to join LinkedIn groups to feed into the community, and to use the Blog tool to share their expertise. Every piece of employee-created content is pure ambassadorship.

5. Things can only get better.

LinkedIn is becoming bigger and better all the time. The tools and features it offers are doing crazy, cool things for EBs and recruitment in general. If your team aren’t active on LinkedIn you’re all missing a trick. Invest in your company’s reputation and future workforce.

There are loads of reasons why employers should use LinkedIn, but number one has to be because all your employees use it. Take out all the wonders of gathering connections and the wealth of insight available, the plain and simple fact that your employees can advocate and personalise your Employer Brand is reason enough.